Arizona United SC played its best game to date as it defeated the Charlotte Eagles 2-1 Saturday night at the Peoria Sports Complex.

Arizona United controlled play for most of the first half with its ball-possession game, and it finally paid off in the 42nd minute as Kadeem Dacres scored off a pass from Brandon Swartzendruber after a great cross from Matt Kassel. For Dacres, it was his first professional goal.

"It's definately huge, it was a long time coming," Dacres said. "It took me a while to realize 'Wow, that was my first professional goal, I was excited.' "

Arizona United coach Michael Dellorusso challenged his guys at practice this week to take ownership of the game, and Dellorusso saw that from his players.

"A lot of questions got answered tonight, I challenged them quite a bit, I told them I wanted to sit down all night and I didn't want to say a word," Dellorusso said. "I told them 'It's their team and I wanted them to make their identity. I thinkt hey did a pretty good job of that today."

Arizona United (2-1-1) continued to keep control of the play in the beginning of the second half, and got the second goal in the 64th minute as Bradlee Baladez found a ball at his feet after defender Scott Morrison kept the ball alive in the corner, crossed it to Bryan Gallego, who got it to Baladez and got it past Charlotte keeper Brock Duckworth for the 2-0 lead.

"It was huge getting that goal," Baladez said, not knowing at the time it would end up being the game-winner. "I was in the right spot at the right time."

From that point, Arizona United went defensive, making substitutions to solidify the back line, but Charlotte (2-3-0) did not relent, and in the 76th minute, forward Jorge Herrera scored his third goal of the season on a defensive breakdown as he slipped past two defenders and put it past Evan Newton to cut the Arizona United lead to 2-1.

"We made a couple of adjustments, but they did well," Dellorusso said of the defensive core in the final 20 minutes. "We let one come through, it was a little disappointing to give that one up, because obviously we deserved the shutout, but it's OK.

"I thought the adjustments we did make, the guys came in a did a great job. I was pleased."

Arizona United now heads out on its first road trip of the season, playing three games ina span of five days, with the first two being back-to-back league games against Richmond and Harrisburg. They conclude the road trip with a second round U.S. Open Cup game against the Portland Timbers U-23 team.

"It's another challenge," Dellorusso said. "Every day is a new challenge with this club so now we're going to have to see how we do it on the road. They're going to have to manage their bodies well, mentally and physically, so it will be a challenge for all of us, but we all look forward to it."